There’s no action!
I really wanted to draw a classic Land Rover. It felt to me like the only car Hetty Mapplethorpe would drive. Not a modern fancy one, one with the bench seats in the back and an un-removable patina of barnyard filth going back decades.
Well, that’s the nominal problem solved. Time now to tackle the actual problem?
Never stop being you, Lottie!
oh my god she’s just like my actual mum
“we’ll run you into town after we scatter daddy’s ashes, come on now”
Looks to me like Lottie may be second-guessing her own solution.
Lottie’s look of discomfort in panel 4 is priceless. Usually she’s the one causing other people to have that expression.
My mother’s favourite car – specifically the old ones, with the bench seats, and “air conditioning” that’s basically two letter boxes under the windscreen…
And a market value of £1,000.
In the US, you can easily clear $30K for one.
A tape? An actual Music Cassette? Why Lottie is carrying something like that with her? I really hope that tape will be Lottie’s secret move for help the two siblings being more friendly to each other, because then idea of a 19 year old with a tape in her purse today is just to weird.
To be fair, Lottie is kind of weird herself.
What is this “cassette
‘ you speak of?
It’s kind of like an 8-track.
The MC. You know, that thing with a magnetic tape inside that was read by a cassette player, but which sometimes got tangled inside the cassette player and was almost impossible to extract.
Cassettes have come back. They’re cool now, apparently.
Truth! Partly because they are very cheap to make and easy to reproduce. I could also see Lottie having a rave CD, a rave thumb drive, etc., just to be prepared with every media carrier she might encounter a player for, depending on the situation. She thinks ahead!
Until they realize how much cassettes suck. Shouldn’t be too long now. Pencil winding anyone? Mangled tape, anyone? Your favourite tape, ruined? I do miss mix tapes though….those really were the best.
It’s not like that car’s going to have Bluetooth (or its Zambian equivalent), an Aux cord, or even a CD player. Is it.
How did Lottie get there? Is there a bus that goes by, but the return run won’t come for hours?
Taxi?
She willed herself there through the power of friendship
She came with Glym.
At least … she did the first time. I hang my head in shame.
Lottie has a good instinct – raving would be better than more of their ranting.
Assuming the rave tape is an actual rave tape, what’s on it?
Strongbad: “The system, is down. The system, is down.”
Plus, I guess, Badger, Badger, Mushroom Mushroom and “Kenya”
I am all for an entire strip of Lottie rocking out to her rave tape while Hettie and Steven drive in awkward uncomfortable silence.
Barnyard Filth, I think I knew him.
Old mate of mine from years ago, used to drive milk tankers.
I think they opened for Brutalism U.K. one time.
I was admiring the Land Rover in the previous strip. Tell me it is diesel and I will be a happy man. My main association with this is being driven around a an RAF base by crazy people. That model was even more austere (no door or roof liners – bare metal every where) – definitely no cassette player. I was a passenger one brisk spring morning when the driver decided to open the frozen shut hangar doors by ramming them (gently) and was of course successful. Land Rovers seem to be designed for that kind of task. I had my bubble popped somewhat by some ANZAC friends bad-mouthing the “wimpy” LR when comparing it to their beloved Hilux https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyHBKX29_Q8 (“Bugger!”)
These are some good observations. For a long time, the official rugged vehicle of the Bad Machinery universe was the Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer but their deal lapsed in 2020 and we’re actively courting new brand partners.
How about a Renault 2CV with 4wd?
Citroen?
Peugeot 2CV, very popular
I thought Amstrad made those
As a young sprog I remember a television clip of an Alvis Stalwart being put through its paces. Initially I was sure that it was a Blue Peter feature with John Noakes either driving or commentating loudly, but I don’t see any web hits so that might be wishful conflation. However, that was the ultimate off-roader in my mind for a while. In real life, in our local hill park, I was in awe of a Boehringer Unimog being driven seemingly at >45° while picking up tree branches. Probably a bit too small for your official vehicle. Alas, in the intervening decades they seem to have been acquired by Mercedes which may have eliminated their cool factor. Nevertheless they are quite capable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3scRYxA_b8
I knew it! I knew it was no Chelsea tractor!
I hate to be “That Guy” but I just noticed that in your comment you spelled the family’s name as “Happlethorpe” instead of Mapplethorpe.
I noticed that, too, but I like the name “Hetty Happlethorpe” so much I decided not to say anything. What can I say- I’m a sucker for alliteration.
With John A, that type of inconsistency has me scouring for inside jokes & references. And I’m a typo-pouncer.
I also noticed that, but all I thought was “cool name.”
Do not underestimate how fast I type and how infrequently I look at what I am actually typing.
Rest in peace, Hetty Happlethorpe. You will be missed.
This got me thinking. Is it MAP-elthorpe, like a road map, or MAPLE-thorpe, like the tree?
In the U.S., it would be like the tree. But you can also find KAY-ro, luh-FAY-ette, and other butcherings here that I’m sure include English names (though nothing comes readily to mind), so …
Americans aren’t the only ones who butcher place names. Check out a map of England sometime and see if you can guess how, say, Leicester (off the top of my head) and countless other cities and towns are pronounced (unless you live there and already know).
Here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Leicester is “LES-ter”. And Worcester is “WUS-tah”.
…and what ought, by rights, to be Worcester, Ohio, is actually spelt “Wooster” (independently of Wodehouse, pron. “Woodhouse”). This is known as the O, Fcck It School of orthography.
Massachusetts is a great state for interestingly-pronounced town names. I am originally from Gloucester (the original one – Glevum) and what they (and now, I suppose, I) do to it is wince-provoking. The colonials ought to be happy with making up modern names. I have a great fondness for Mechanicsburg PA.
He’s got the keys to the car. They are the keys to the kingdom.
with my 1975 diesel SWB Land Rover (barnyard filth indeed: it reminded you of of its former life on a sheep farm every time it got damp, which was basically always), you didn’t need keys. A sharp tug on any locked door would open it. Anything metallic could start it. But it got me up and down Hogshead Hill near Bacup a treat.
Hetty = Heather? (no search engines allowed)
Harriet, I’d wager, knowing these types.
I was at uni with a girl named Floss and another named Flick, if you want to play further rounds of this game.
Harriet reduces to Hattie. Hetty may be Hephzibah or something. That could account for her anger issues. But I’m not sure John has left himself time to dig that deeply.
My second guess is Hester…
Henrietta!
Hoping we’ll get to see the front end of that Land Rover. I’m sure John will greatly enjoy drawing the motorized winch.
That Chelsea tractor looks like a Vera mobile to me.
Wonderful Land Rover. At first I was slightly confused by it’s seemingly unscratch paint and undented panels, but then I reasoned that wiith Hetty driving a Land Rover, even immovable objects would scuttle out of her way.
Not just any Rover mind you, but one that has “seen things.” A Rover brought back from Kenya after being used on patrol against the Mau Mau or personally driven by “Mad Mitch” during the Aden Emergency.